Scalable and Precise Program Analysis for Modern Software Systems

程序分析工具可以帮助检测，并可能修复许多软件错误。然而，实证研究表明，在实践中，软件开发人员避免使用大多数程序分析工具，因为这些工具不能扩展到现代软件系统，报告许多误报，或者破坏开发人员的工作流程。软件开发人员对程序分析工具的许多抱怨都是由于这些工具所做的不切实际的假设。特别是对于超大规模的软件系统，分析整个程序是不可行的。此外，现代软件系统构建在许多难以精确分析的库之上，因为它们在应用程序代码和库代码之间表现出复杂的依赖关系。拟议的研究旨在通过两个主要研究活动发现一个全面的解决方案，以扩展精确的程序分析到现代软件系统：（1）开发一种实用的方法来构建现有库和框架的抽象，使它们更适合程序分析，以及（2）设计一种积极的方法来在库的开发过程中创建库抽象。建议的研究结果将是有用的研究人员和软件开发人员。提出的部分程序分析将使研究人员能够探索超大规模框架和现代软件系统的分析。它们还将使程序分析工具能够在现实环境中更广泛地部署，这有助于软件开发人员在开发过程中尽早发现软件错误和安全漏洞。早期发现软件漏洞将提高使用这些工具的软件开发人员的整体生产力，并帮助软件公司（如BioWare）每年因软件故障而节省数十亿美元的损失。

Program-analysis tools can help detect, and possibly fix, many software bugs. However, empirical research has shown that, in practice, software developers refrain from using most program-analysis tools, because the tools do not scale to modern software systems, report many false positives, or disrupt the workflow of developers.******Many of the complaints that software developers have made about program-analysis tools are due to the underlying impractical assumptions that these tools make. In particular, for ultra-large-scale software systems, it is not feasible to analyze the whole program. Additionally, modern software systems are built on top of many libraries that are hard to analyze precisely, because they exhibit complicated dependencies between the application code and the library code.******The proposed research aims at discovering a comprehensive solution to scaling precise program analysis to modern software systems through two main research activities: (1) developing a pragmatic approach to construct abstractions of existing libraries and frameworks that make them more amenable to program analysis, and (2) devising a proactive approach to create library abstractions during the development process of the library.******The findings of the proposed research will be useful for both researchers and software developers. The proposed partial-program analyses will enable researchers to explore analyses for ultra-large-scale frameworks and modern software systems. They will also enable wider deployment of program-analysis tools in real-world settings, which helps software developers detect software bugs and security vulnerabilities as early as possible in the development process. Early detection of software bugs will improve the overall productivity of software developers using these tools, and help software companies, such as BioWare, save billions of dollars that are lost due to software failures every year.